Sean Dyche confirms new Everton injury blow and reveals trio struck down by sickness bug
Sean Dyche admitted James Tarkowski missed Everton’s defeat by Southampton with a back injury.
The Toffees exited the Carabao Cup at the hands of their Premier League rivals at Goodison Park on Tuesday night. After a 1-1 draw following 90 minutes, Everton lost 6-5 on penalties and were eliminated from the competition at the third-round stage.
While Everton’s poor run of form continued, having failed to pick up a point in the Premier League so far this season, they were missing several key players against Southampton.
Dyche made a total of eight changes from last weekend’s 3-2 loss at Aston Villa, with Tarkowski not on the bench. That is because the centre-back was troubled with an issue that the Toffees did not want to aggravate.
Dyche is hopeful that Tarkowski will be available for the trip to Leicester City on Saturday (15.00 BST). The Goodison boss said: “It’s his back. He’s been fighting his way through it. We’re hopeful it settles down in time for the weekend.”
Meanwhile, Everton were struck down with illness on the morning of the Southampton encounter. Vitalii Mykolenko did not recover in time, having been forced off in the first half at Villa. Then Dominic Calvert-Lewin and James Garner had to pull out of the squad as they contracted the sickness bug.
What’s more, Jarrad Branthwaite, Nathan Patterson, Seamus Coleman, Youssef Chermiti and Armando Broja were also absent with injury. Dyche added: “We wanted to win the game and we haven’t done, albeit the game going to penalties, which is always tricky.
“The team, we had to piece together this morning with three players going down ill and I think we’ve given as good as we can get with the players available. We had 12 [senior] outfield players available. We had to piece that together and deliver a performance I thought could win, especially with the chances created, that’s been a challenge even before my time taking the chances.
“You’ve got one morning because we thought we had Myko, Dom and Jimmy. You’re talking about an hour’s work to try to get the team that can look like a team and some hadn’t played together before. I thought that was pleasing, they looked like a team that could tactically understand the challenge. Some of the play was good at times, we opened them enough to win the game but didn’t take the chances and you go down on penalties.
“Regardless of injury and illness, I still want to go out and win. Certainly, we hope to get the three illnesses back. From what we know, it’s a passing bug. It can feel like everything is against you.”
